Apple Plans to Switch to Randomized Serial Numbers for Future Products Starting in 2021 [Updated]

[57004]

Hopefully this also leads to less stolen/spoofed serial numbers being used by Hackintosh machines.

Hackintoshes don't need a valid serial to work. Mine has been updating from High Sierra -> Mojave -> Catalina just fine and is definitely not a valid serial number

I think this is a bit of a loss really. It was actually nice to be able to tell so much about a Mac. Besides the date you could also see which facility it was manufactured and what spec it was. Very handy when buying second-hand models.

 

[ksnell]

I also wish they'd make the serial numbers bigger and easier to read. I work in IT, and it's a real pain to read the serial numbers off the bottom. Before anyone asks, checking About My Mac / Settings → General → About isn't possible if the device doesn't even start up. Maybe add a barcode version of it so I can use a barcode scanner.

This. A mini QR code would be fantastic.

 

[JPack]

This is basically why they are doing it. Also it probably helps keep "analysts" from figuring out how many units they've sold. Apple is existing vertical growth and is expanding their product lines and areas of influence horizontally.

Apple serial numbers are already non-sequential. Apple analysts estimate sales using other supply chain factors. Like asking Shenzhen Yuto Packaging how many boxes they're making for Apple since they're the sole supplier. Or asking Shenzhen Desay and Simplo how many battery packs have been ordered for iPhone.

 

[alent1234]

I bet it's to prevent the iCloud hacks that were based on estimating serial numbers of a device

 

[CPTmom2wp]

I like this idea overall, but Apple really ought to include some sort of check digit mechanism, and publish the formula they picked, so that it's possible to determine with high confidence whether a supplied Apple serial number could actually really be a genuine Apple serial number. (Only Apple would know for sure, of course.) There are all sorts of real world scenarios when businesses, governments, and other organizations need to take accurate inventories and when somebody transposes a digit or otherwise gets the serial number wrong. It'd be darn helpful if all these organizations could know, right away, when they've collected a serial number in their inventory taking that cannot possibly be a genuine Apple serial number.

Also, Apple ought to eliminate all characters from serial numbers that can be easily mistaken for other characters. This generally includes (as examples):

0, O, D, and (probably) Q
5 and S
1, 7, and I
8 and B
U and V

The choice of typeface can matter a lot here -- for example, to distinguish A from R -- but some easy-to-confuse characters ought to be dropped no matter what the typeface. This'll help even Apple's own support teams over the phone, etc., as they deal with consumers. There are still plenty of characters available to allow plenty of serial numbers for billions of products.

Finally (and now that Jony Ive has left!), don't be afraid to make serial numbers easier to read (in larger type) on devices. Apple has got typographic experts, so spend some effort making serial numbers easier to read within whatever (sometimes lame) aesthetic goals Apple is trying to achieve. IBM ThinkPads were pretty damn stylish, and they had big, easy to read serial numbers in easy to inventory places.

Yes Please! Particularly the 0 & O; B & 8. I also like the idea of spaces in long chains of letters and numbers. These are much better read and recalled by the human brain.

 

[tk_mac]

I've always been under the assumption that by disallowing iOS software to be reverted, this prevents criminals and government (is there a difference?) from downgrading our devices and then cracking them with their outdated tools that Apple has already locked down, such as those $30,000 or whatever boxes with the lightning cable that law enforcement was using a few years ago.

Wouldnt the user data have to be erased to downgrade? And iOS backups are not designed to be restored to older firmware. And it can stay this way. When a user downgrades, they should have to set up as new device. My proposed right to repair allowing downgrades would not obligate Apple to make it easy to restore user data after the downgrade. Also Apple does not make it easy to restore data on a downgraded Mac.

 

[DanBig]

Anything to reduce fraud is appreciated.

You realize thats not the reason! As much as Apple would want you to believe that!

The first part of the S/N has been useful id'ing the system when your system is dead. Apple is doing you a disservice here by hiding it!
If Apple clearly labeled the sticker with the model and given CPU then they can alter the S/N's hearts content but we know thats not what they will do!
[automerge]1578336890[/automerge]

It's also fairly common when I have to enter an office building or other facility where somebody at a security (or "security") desk inventories all entering and exiting laptops by serial number. Owners of laptops with easy-to-find and easy-to-read serial numbers breeze right through both ways. The few brave (foolish?) Mac owners like me have a much, much tougher time. Me: "There's the serial number in teeny, tiny print. See?" No, the security officer doesn't see it. Virtually nobody does, not without a magnifying glass. Of course there's no magnifying glass or it cannot be found, and then "hilarity" ensues at the security desk.

Or I suppose I could power up my Mac (if not already powered up), unlock my Mac, go to the Apple menu, select "About This Mac," and show the security officer the on screen serial number. And I could do all that in the "alien" place with recording cameras everywhere, with some unknown security officer ready to grab my laptop? No thanks.

Come on, Apple! This class of problems is easy to fix. Just make the damn serial number human readable.

And how about including the 5 character device model identifier (e.g. A2346) as part of the serial number, for example:

A2346 XW9 E32 6CHY

and, as I've done above, including spaces to make the serial number easier to read? Humans tend to do better processing "words," as the face of every credit card (including the Apple Card) indicates. Look at the difference here:

A2346XW9E326CHY

It's much easier to read off the serial number when it contains spaces like that. The spaces can be optionally entered but are ignored in Apple serial number input fields and in the check digit algorithm.

Thats what we have now!

 

[ghanwani]

The randomized format would likely not be decipherable, or at least hard to, and it could also help to reduce fraud.

How does this reduce fraud?

 

[Hodar1]

Major benefit is it allows Apple to hide the country and factory of origin.

Devices can still be manufactured in Zhengzhou, forwarded to Vietnam, then shipped to the U.S. to avoid potential tariffs.

Apple serial numbers are already non-sequential. Currently, fraudsters pay Apple Store staff to retrieve lists of serial numbers. So randomizing serial numbers largely benefits Apple in masking the supply chain.

Country of Manufacture, is usually required.

I cannot speak of the law today, but 10 years ago when I worked in the industry - a computer motherboard, power supply, hard drive, chassis and assorted PCI cards was all classified as a "Computer Peripheral" until the CPU was mounted to the motherboard.

This is how Dell skirted many import tariffs, as Dell would use a temporary tape in shipping to the Dell warehouse, would remove the "computer peripheral" and install the Customer Specified CPU and memory, reassemble, and then install the software on the blank hard drive before putting it all back in the original box and shipping it to the customer. That's how many of the very low cost PC's were shipped, at such low margins.

 

[DanBig]

How does this reduce fraud?

It really doesn't. Hiding in obscurity only makes it harder for the poor bloke who buys the system to tell what it has and what the model should have.

As an example the site https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/ allows you to ID what your system specs should be. Now how am I going to figure it out?

 

[CarlJ]

Then technically it's not a serial number anymore. Serial numbers are in series.

It could be a number that is, indeed, serial, but encrypted and displayed in base 62.

 

[farmboy]

Major benefit is it allows Apple to hide the country and factory of origin.

Devices can still be manufactured in Zhengzhou, forwarded to Vietnam, then shipped to the U.S. to avoid potential tariffs.

Nah, it's just not worth the hassle to screw around with the COO. Everything is traceable. And no major corporation with anything at stake is going to try to evade customs like that, the negative fallout in product held in customs indefinitely, fines and bad press is too great. You ought to see all the federal agencies we have to deal with just to bring in some basically harmless chemicals. Customs, FDA, Fish & Wildlife, etc.

 

[Baymowe335]

You realize thats not the reason! As much as Apple would want you to believe that!

The first part of the S/N has been useful id'ing the system when your system is dead. Apple is doing you a disservice here by hiding it!
If Apple clearly labeled the sticker with the model and given CPU then they can alter the S/N's hearts content but we know thats not what they will do!
[automerge]1578336890[/automerge]


Thats what we have now!

Let's not act like you have some kind of inside information.

 

[macduke]

Wouldnt the user data have to be erased to downgrade? And iOS backups are not designed to be restored to older firmware. And it can stay this way. When a user downgrades, they should have to set up as new device. My proposed right to repair allowing downgrades would not obligate Apple to make it easy to restore user data after the downgrade. Also Apple does not make it easy to restore data on a downgraded Mac.

That's probably right. Thanks.

 

[guzhogi]

It's also fairly common when I have to enter an office building or other facility where somebody at a security (or "security") desk inventories all entering and exiting laptops by serial number. Owners of laptops with easy-to-find and easy-to-read serial numbers breeze right through both ways. The few brave (foolish?) Mac owners like me have a much, much tougher time. Me: "There's the serial number in teeny, tiny print. See?" No, the security officer doesn't see it. Virtually nobody does, not without a magnifying glass. Of course there's no magnifying glass or it cannot be found, and then "hilarity" ensues at the security desk.

Not just bigger, but black text on a space gray computer? Umm…yeah. Maybe do white text with a black outline or vice versa?

 

[konqerror]

I look forward to the day that right to repair legislation in some jurisdiction places a ban on irreversible software updates on all electronic devices.

I've always been under the assumption that by disallowing iOS software to be reverted, this prevents criminals and government (is there a difference?) from downgrading our devices and then cracking them with their outdated tools that Apple has already locked down

Exactly. Government cybersecurity standards and requirements actually require a mechanism to prevent rollback of software/firmware to prevent the reintroduction of known security bugs.

Example is NIST SP 800-147:

The authenticated update mechanism should prevent the unauthorized rollback of the BIOS to an earlier authentic version that has a known security weakness. This limitation of the rollback mechanism may be accomplished, for example, by verifying that the version number of the BIOS image is larger than the currently installed BIOS image’s version number.

 

[Jules_K]

I also wish they'd make the serial numbers bigger and easier to read. I work in IT, and it's a real pain to read the serial numbers off the bottom. Before anyone asks, checking About My Mac / Settings → General → About isn't possible if the device doesn't even start up. Maybe add a barcode version of it so I can use a barcode scanner.

Use the diagnostics mode on mac, newer versions should display a barcode on screen

 

[Elyzien]

Next... Apple finally makes the SN readable on the back of your device!! OH SHIZZZZ!

 

[BraytonAK]

How does this differ from other computer manufacturers? Can you use a Lenovo serial or a Dell service tag to get similar info about those devices?

Also, I thought I was hallucinating when a company MBP stopped by my desk without any external serial. It’s not that it was difficult to see. It just didn’t have one and the remaining text was centered perfectly despite this. I thought maybe it had been repaired by Apple and given a blank bottom.

 

[a104375]

How does this differ from other computer manufacturers? Can you use a Lenovo serial or a Dell service tag to get similar info about those devices?

Yes, you can plug a Dell service tag in to their own online tool, and it will tell you the specs of the original configuration as they call it, of the machine.

 

[AustinIllini]

Can't object to this. I'm not the type of person who looks up a car's VIN either.

 

[winston1236]

I also wish they'd make the serial numbers bigger and easier to read. I work in IT, and it's a real pain to read the serial numbers off the bottom. Before anyone asks, checking About My Mac / Settings → General → About isn't possible if the device doesn't even start up. Maybe add a barcode version of it so I can use a barcode scanner.

I always take a pic with my phone and zoom/read it from there.

 

[Dustman]

Wouldnt the user data have to be erased to downgrade? And iOS backups are not designed to be restored to older firmware. And it can stay this way. When a user downgrades, they should have to set up as new device. My proposed right to repair allowing downgrades would not obligate Apple to make it easy to restore user data after the downgrade. Also Apple does not make it easy to restore data on a downgraded Mac.

You can actually force a “newer” backup on an older iOS version. It’s just generally a bad idea as it can make your device super buggy as pieces of code that linger from the newer OS get broken on the older OS.

 

[cube]

Can't object to this. I'm not the type of person who looks up a car's VIN either.

Of course you know you can find recalls by VIN.

 

[Tech198]

serial numbers are used to confirm eligibility of support as well